Knowing the best revision tips for you can be really challenging, especially because most schools don’t focus on revision methods.
As a private tutor myself, these are the revision hacks that my students have found most helpful. I have used them for over a decade myself (much as I hate to admit that!), so I can promise you they work.
Revision can feel ridiculously stressful, and nothing can change that. However, knowing a few ways to efficiently structure your revision will save you inordinate amounts of time and panic!
This article is all about revision tips.
Revision Tips
1. Read the specification
Even better would be to print off the content list and RAG-rate it. That means rating each topic as Red, Amber or Green depending on how confident you are. Start with your Reds, move on to Ambers and finally go over your Greens. One of the most common revision mistakes is only studying the topics in which you are confident, as they are the least threatening. However, that’s one of the worst things you can do for yourself when revising – after all, you know those topics!
On the topic of common revision errors, another big one is missing a topic, and this is something else that reading the specification will help!
(P.S. If you aren’t sure about your exam board, ask your teacher, or check the school website. It’s a very important thing to know!)
2. Use mindmaps
To demonstrate how to best use mindmaps, have a look at this one I made when studying for my history degree:
- Clear categories (alliances, diplomatic crises, arms race etc)
- Bright colours to match the categories, both to make them clearer and so that it looks pretty (more fun to make, and easier to remember!)
- Mixture of factual information, details of the ‘story’ and comments on the relative importance of each event
- Arrows indicating connections between connected pieces of information
- All the information I would ever need to know about the causes of WWI is packed onto this one page, not scattered across many pages of chaotic notes
Anyway, I hope that all makes sense. Making a mindmap is a very helpful way of categorising information. However, they won’t help necessarily help you learn this information. For that, you will need flashcards…
3. Use flashcards efficiently
However, I’ll also provide the most important points of the above article are as follows:
- Flashcards should be used for learning facts and figures, not endless reams of information
- Make your own flashcards – the making is half the learning
- Keep your flashcards short (just a few words on either side)
- Use bright colours to make your words stand out and to categorise your flashcards
4. Teach a friend
Pick a very narrow topic – so instead of the very broad ‘Cells,’ you could teach your student about ‘Viewing Cells through Microscopes’ or ‘The Differences between Animal and Plant Cells.’ The more specific the better.
I would also recommend little and often – a ten-minute lesson every day is much better than a three-hour long torture session once a week!
Another thing you could do is to give your textbook or notes to your student and get them to quiz you on anything mentioned in your work. This could be key words, facts and figures, or practice questions. Speaking of practice questions…
5. Take LOTS of practice tests
The first step here is to look at your exam board website again. Search for the ‘Assessment’ tab and find the past papers. You can then go through every past paper of the past five or so years, depending on which subject you are focusing on. You don’t have to print them all off, though I would recommend printing at least one so you can practice in as close to exam conditions as possible.
Once you have exhausted official past papers, search the websites for other exam boards. Papers will be structured differently, but the topics will be the same (with a few minor differences). You can also type, for example, ‘Chemistry GCSE practice paper’ into the searchbar, and see what comes up. Any practice questions and papers are good practice!
Of course, you can also ask your teachers, or look in your textbooks. They will have a massive bank of resources for you to use.
Here are a few methods you can use to vary your practice test routine:
- Give yourself ten minutes less than you are supposed to have
- Fill out a practice test at the library or a nearby cafe
- Turn on the TV or work on a test at the dinner table
- Walk up and down the stairs in between each question to practice with a heightened heart rate to mimic exam nerves
6. Read the mark scheme
Next key step is to write down where you went wrong. I would store this in two different ways: first, what style the questions was (i.e. short answer, long answer, multiple choice, factual recall, analysis etc); second, what content the question was asking about. The more tests you work through, the more data you can collect about your common pitfalls, which will allow you to focus on your weaknesses.
You will probably also notice commonalities between different mark scheme questions. This is most commonly repeated phrases and key words you have to use – particularly in Science exams. Store these and remember to include them in your exam!
Another amazing and underused resource is the Examiner’s Report, which is issued for most, though not all, papers and exam boards. These tell you which questions were most commonly poorly answered, as well as providing tips on how to get the best marks. Incredibly helpful!
7. Learn how to write well
Having said that, you do not need to have incredible SPaG for most subjects – you can mostly get away with it if your writing is legible and clearly expressed. Keep your sentences short and sweet, and you’ll probably be fine.
Essay subjects, on the other hand, need fantastic SPaG, especially English Language. A common error is using a comma splice, which a majority of people have not even heard of, and it’s a particular pet peeve of mine. If you’d like some tips on how to avoid them, have a look at this article:
The Comma Splice: Every Teacher’s Pet Peeve
Here are a few more general tips:
- Avoid complicated punctuation if you aren’t 100% certain you are using it correctly
- Shorter sentences are always better
- Focus on clarity rather than complexity
- Avoid gratuitous exclamation marks – for creative writing, limit yourself to one exclamation mark per question
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